I have been saving quotes that I found on writing for a while now, and I do feel that there is enough to make it into a list. It’s very focused and is targeting writers (including bloggers ;) ).

Words (especially in quotes) are powerful, in fact so powerful that it can give you goosebumps. So here I’m listing some of the famous quotes on writing — for you and for me — I really hope it helps you stay focused and stay inspired all the time.

“Find the most important things you MUST do. Do those things first. Do other things later or not at all.” — Darren Rowse

“Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” — Ernest Hemingway

“Don’t get it right, just get it written.” — James Thurber

#Reading

“Every book I’ve read appears in my writing.” — Rob Bignell

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life. You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” — Stephen King

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” — Oscar Wilde

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” — William Faulkner

#Writing

“Write about what makes you different.” — Sandra Cisneros

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The desire to write grows with writing.” — Desiderius Erasmus

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louise L’Amour

“The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.” — Jules Renard

“Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.” — Mark Twain

“Write what you know. Write what you want to know more about. Write what you’re afraid to write about.” — Cec Murphy

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” — William Wordsworth

“Writing is talking, except you get the chance to edit what you just said.” — Bangambiki Habyarimana

“Write what should not be forgotten.” — Isabel Allende

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.” — Stephen King

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” — Gloria Steinem

“It’s no secret that the best place to write, in my opinion, is in a café. You don’t have to make your own coffee, you don’t have to feel like you’re in solitary confinement and if you have writers block, you can get up and walk to the next café while giving your batteries time to recharge and brain time to think.” — J. K. Rowling

“Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.” — Meg Cabot

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” — Natalie Goldberg

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” — Barbara Kingsolver

#Creativity

“Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.” — Natalie Goldberg

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” — Virginia Woolf

“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.” — Samuel Johnson

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” — Stephen King

“I think… the most brilliant thing about being a writer is that if you don’t like the way the world is, you can create your own.” — Maegan Cook

“I am a writer because I write, an author because I create, a poet because the words are in my soul.” — Wesley D. Gray

Perfection

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” — Margaret Atwood

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.” — Anne Lamott

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“I’m a perfectionist. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s okay if there are flaws here and there.” — Tyra Banks

#Success

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” — E. L. Doctorow

ABOUT MAHESH (@maheshone)

Hey there, I’m Mahesh (@maheshone). I started learning and doing and experimenting web 2.0 stuff back in 2004 and eventually became a full-time computer nerd after graduation. Minterest is a digital marketing and technology journal that I founded in 2007 to feed my super curiosity (oh yeah, I’m a solo-blogger). I write about tech, marketing, and everything in between that excites me. And I love to work with small businesses to help them get the most out of the web. Outside of that, I'm equally passionate about the financial markets and I also spend a lot of time doing random things (see random facts about me). Say hi: @maheshone. Read More »